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Gilead
John Ames, an elderly pastor in the rural town of Gilead, Iowa, has a young wife, a seven-year-old son, and the unavoidable knowledge that, despite having to wait until his seventies to build the family he always wanted, he is now dying. The book plays out as an extended letter from Ames to his son, whom he knows will be too young to truly remember Ames when he is gone. The tone slides from wistful elegy, as when Ames recalls fond, cherished memories of ...Housekeeping
Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, are being brought up by their Aunt Sylvie. When the girls were small their mother left them with their grandmother, then left and ran her car off a bridge; very likely it was suicide. The girls' grandfather had died in an amazing train wreck, for which their grandmother was still known. When grandmother dies, two great aunts come to take over, but they find it difficult to care for the children, and summon the girls'...